Christian Patriotism in America

These are the collaborating institutions which created the 2025 Mandate For Leadership document; note how none of their patriotic-Pavlovian titles reveal any hint of the radical Christian dominion theology driving these front organizations (from pp.xi-xii):

 

The majority of political conservatives in high office in the USA are Christians, as are the conservative voters who keep them in office. These faux Christians cloak their political agendas in euphemisms in order to hide theocratic fascism behind patriotic-sounding titles. This is dishonest and gaslighting. Don’t believe it? Just look at the evidence they provide against themselves! 

Here are some excerpts from their 2025 Mandate For Leadership.

“The Heritage Foundation is proud to have played a small but pivotal role in that story. It was in early 1979—amid stagflation, gas lines, and the Red Army’s invasion of Afghanistan, the nadir of Jimmy Carter’s days of malaise—that Heritage launched the Mandate for Leadership project. We brought together hundreds of conservative scholars and academics across the conservative movement. Together, this team created a 20-volume, 3,000-page governing handbook containing more than 2,000 conservative policies to reform the federal government and rescue the American people from Washington dysfunction. It was a promise from the conservative movement to the country—confident, specific, and clear. Mandate for Leadership was published in January 1981—the same month Ronald Reagan was sworn into his presidency. By the end of that year, more than 60 percent of its recommendations had become policy…”

(p.2; emphasis mine)

Clearly, Reagan was a tool of right-wing Christian conservatives. They are not hiding that fact.

 

“After that first edition, a new Mandate was produced every four years. But the 2016 edition was one of particular note. It earned significant attention from the Trump Administration, as Heritage had accumulated a backlog of conservative ideas that had been blocked by President Barack Obama and his team. Soon after President Donald Trump was sworn in, his Administration began to implement major parts of the 2016 Mandate. After his first year in office, the Administration had implemented 64 percent of its policy recommendations.”

(p.885; emphasis mine)

Obviously, Trump was a tool.

 

“The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”

(pp.4-5; emphasis mine)

Deleting the terms diversity, equity, inclusion, gender, AND ANY OTHER TERM… censorship and mental policing are straight out of the playbook of the Abrahamic religions.

 

“America’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas are not an environmental problem; they are the lifeblood of economic growth.”

(p.13)

To promote such anti-scientific claims amid ongoing climate change disasters is the hallmark of an ideology based on the book of Genesis i.e., dominion theology.

“It’s this radical equality—liberty for all—not just of rights but of authority—that the rich and powerful have hated about democracy in America since 1776. They resent Americans’ audacity in insisting that we don’t need them to tell us how to live.”

(p.14)

Huh? WTF kind of revisionism is this? The rich GOT rich precisely through exploiting the liberty they enjoy within our peculiarly institutionalized colonial capitalism.

“Ultimately, the Left does not believe that all men are created equal—they think they are special. They certainly don’t think all people have an unalienable right to pursue the good life. They think only they themselves have such a right along with a moral responsibility to make decisions for everyone else. They don’t think any citizen, state, business, church, or charity should be allowed any freedom until they first bend the knee.”

(p.16)

The gaslighting is REAL! First, a bold, evidence-free claim about how the “Left” define equality. Then the claim that the Left demands obeisance! Who advocates that “bend the knee” thing more than conservatives with their fake flag patriotism, and their Christian dominionist ideology?

“HHS is also home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the duo most responsible—along with President Joe Biden—for the irrational, destructive, un-American mask and vaccine mandates that were imposed upon an ostensibly free people during the COVID-19 pandemic. All along, it was clear from randomized controlled trials— the gold standard of medical research—that masks provide little to no benefit in preventing the spread of viruses and might even be counterproductive.“

(p.283; emphasis mine)

OMG! The disdain for medical science, (well, all science), is clear in this document; again, this flows directly from the anti-science roots within Christianity.

“Safeguarding civil rights. Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.”

(p.322)

This statement wins the award for most Orwellian Doublespeak: Advocating a Civil Rights policy that ignores its roots in women’s rights and minority rights. What’s left after you take away those concerns? Straight white Christian men, I guess. Pretty obvious here the influence of misogynism and White Supremacy on the document, and in the ideology guiding the above listed institutions which created it.

“The next Administration should also rescind Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) GEN 22-11 and DCL GEN 22-10 and its letters to accreditation agencies dated July 19, 2022, which are attempts to undercut Florida’s SB 7044, providing universities more flexibility on accreditation.”

(p.332; emphasis mine)

This support for Ron DeSantis’ educational policies in Florida should alarm anyone who cares about teaching and learning.

By its very design, critical race theory has an “applied” dimension, as its founders state in their essays that define the theory. Those who subscribe to the theory believe that racism (in this case, treating individuals differently based on race) is appropriate—necessary, even—making the theory more than merely an analytical tool to describe race in public and private life. The theory disrupts America’s Founding ideals of freedom and opportunity. So, when critical race theory is used as part of school activities such as mandatory affinity groups, teacher training programs in which educators are required to confess their privilege, or school assignments in which students must defend the false idea that America is systemically racist, the theory is actively disrupting the values that hold communities together such as equality under the law and colorblindness.

(p.343-344; emphasis mine)

More next-level gaslighting: CRT founders (who were seeking additional weapons in the ongoing war on racism in this society) “believe that racism … is appropriate–necessary, even…” Such bullshit. More evidence of the White Supremacists who have infected the ideology of the document and its writers and supporters.

(Conservative Health & Human Services Dep’t) Goal #1: Protecting Life, Conscience, and Bodily Integrity.
(Conservative HHS) Goal #2: Empowering Patient Choices and Provider Autonomy.

(p.450; emphasis mine)

Your second goal would like to talk to your first goal.

“Protect faith-based grant recipients from religious liberty violations and maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family. Social science reports that assess the objective outcomes for children raised in homes aside from a heterosexual, intact marriage are clear: All other family forms involve higher levels of instability (the average length of same-sex marriages is half that of heterosexual marriages); financial stress or poverty; and poor behavioral, psychological, or educational outcomes.”

(p.481; emphasis mine)

Here’s some classic Christian Doublespeak: “a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family.” Just let that sink in. Remind yourself that Christians run universities and fund faith-biased studies run by their own in-house “scientists”. Again, “biblically based”; notice how this gives the lie to their idea of Religious Freedom, defining it strictly within the bounds of the Christian Bible (or, a bit more broadly, the Abrahamic religions). They think all those other religions and atheists like me will just go away if they ignore us.

The chapter (#15) promoting their ideas about the DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT was written by Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD. When I was a Seventh-day Adventist, this guy was a famous SDA surgeon who promoted reading, and nothing more. His work in the Trump administration showed that he should have stayed in his lane.

“End the war on fossil fuels and domestically available minerals and facilitate their development on lands owned by Indians and Indian nations.”

(p.537)

Does anyone think that fossil fuels are a victim, instead of a threat? Yes. Yes they do. Take that up with the authors and support of the document. Does anyone believe these guys are looking out for the best interests of the indigenous people of this land? I really doubt they even believe it themselves.

From the chapter on the Labor Department:
“Sabbath Rest. God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest, and until very recently the Judeo-Christian tradition sought to honor that mandate by moral and legal regulation of work on that day. Moreover, a shared day off makes it possible for families and communities to enjoy time off together, rather than as atomized individuals, and provides a healthier cadence of life for everyone. Unfortunately, that communal day of rest has eroded under the pressures of consumerism and secularism, especially for low-income workers. Congress should encourage communal rest by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require that workers be paid time and a half for hours worked on the Sabbath. That day would default to Sunday, except for employers with a sincere religious observance of a Sabbath at a different time (e.g., Friday sundown to Saturday sundown); the obligation would transfer to that period instead. Houses of worship (to the limited extent they may have FLSA-covered employees) and employers legally required to operate around the clock (such as hospitals and first responders) would be exempt, as would workers otherwise exempt from overtime.”

(p.589; emphasis mine)

Excruciatingly glaring evidence of bias toward a few religions, especially those Judeo-Christian ones. If you want an interesting perspective on where ideas like the above may lead, talk to your local Seventh-day Adventist!

Major recommendation in Labor Department chapter: “Eliminate Racial Classifications and Critical Race Theory Trainings.”
(p.582)
What reasoning do they offer for doing this?
“With interracial marriages in America increasing, many Americans do not fit neatly into crude racial categories. Under disparate impact theory, moreover, discriminatory motive or intent is irrelevant; the outcome is what matters. But all workplaces have disparities. Congress should: Eliminate disparate impact as a valid theory of discrimination for race and other bases under Title VII and other laws. Disparities do not (and should not legally) imply discrimination per se.“

(p.583; emphasis mine)

If you want an interesting perspective on where ideas like the above may lead, talk to your local Black person!